Key Takeaways
- Companies operating in the Fifth Circuit are likely to see more discrimination claims challenging management’s employment decisions.
- To minimize potential exposure, careful employers should engage human resources professionals and/or counsel early in the decision-making process.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals’ recent decision in Hamilton v. Dallas County expanded the scope of claims employees may pursue under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title VII is the anti-discrimination statute that seeks to protect against workplace discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin. For nearly three decades, courts in the Fifth Circuit restricted the kinds of actions that can be challenged under Title VII to those called “ultimate employment decisions” such as hiring, granting leave, discharging, promoting and compensating.
In Hamilton, the court reversed course and ruled that Title VII claims are not so limited. Instead, the court held that the “ultimate employment decisions” standard was incompatible with the congressional intent behind the enactment of Title VII, which also expressly prohibits disparate treatment with respect to “terms, conditions, or privileges of employment.” The court therefore revived the Hamilton plaintiffs’ lawsuit challenging a Texas county’s policy that allows only male detention officers to have full weekends off. Under the old standard, this discriminatory scheduling policy did not amount to an “ultimate employment decision” and was therefore not actionable.
In concluding that the officers’ claims “plausibly alleged discrimination ‘with respect to [their] … terms, conditions, or privileges of employment,’” the court found that a scheduling system based on sex denied the officers the “privilege of seniority because of their sex.”
It’s unclear precisely what the new floor is for discrimination claims, but the court noted that Title VII is not a “general civility code” for the workplace and “does not permit liability for de minimis workplace trifles.”
There is likely more to come on this issue from the Supreme Court, which is currently considering, in Muldrow v. City of St. Louis, what kind of injury suffices to support a Title VII claim. Until greater clarity is provided, employers in the Fifth Circuit should carefully consider whether employment decisions that negatively impact certain groups will now give rise to legal claims that previously failed to meet the threshold.
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